Will Michael Jordan’s jewelry collection get a an addition this week?
As if its six NBA championship rings are not enough.
We’ll see what the punters then suggest that NASCAR is heading to Phoenix for the final race of 2024. Four drivers have survived the first three rounds of the 10-race playoff, have a championship chance and the rules are simple.
Of the four, the driver who finishes best is the new champion, even if, like last year, he does not win the race. In a decade with this format, Ryan Blaney last year became the first champion not to become champion by winning the final – he finished second to Ross Chastain but ahead of his three championship competitors.
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This is NASCAR’s “Championship Four”
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Ryan Blaney (Team Penske)
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Joey Logano (Team Penske)
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William Byron (Hendrick Motorsports)
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Tyler Reddick (23XI Race)
It’s Reddick and 23XI, Jordan’s co-owned team, that present the potential for miscues this weekend.
Let’s review…
When did Michael Jordan become a NASCAR team owner?
Michael Jordan’s NASCAR team took to the track in 2021.
Jordan’s co-owners are longtime business associate Curtis Polk and current NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
The team name – 23XI – is pronounced 23-eleven, a pun on Jordan’s famous Chicago Bulls jersey number (23) and Hamlin’s longtime car number at Gibbs Racing.
Along with Reddick, the two-car team will also field a Toyota for Bubba Wallace.
23XI has eight wins and now a championship shot
After entering NASCAR as a one-car operation, 23XI fielded two cars starting in 2022. The team has eight Cup Series victories – five from Reddick, two from Wallace and one from Kurt Busch over the course of his only season with the team in 2022.
This year, Reddick won the regular season championship by leading the points standings at the end of the 26-race regular season.
After making it through the Round of 32 and Round of 32 in the playoffs, he clinched a championship shot with a victory two weeks ago at Homestead-Miami.
23XI and Front Row sue NASCAR
Several weeks ago, NASCAR gave racing teams an ultimatum: sign a new partnership agreement or risk losing their charters – each charter serves as a de facto “franchise” in NASCAR. Teams can have a maximum of four charters.
A charter helps teams create equity in their organizations and also gives each approved team a guaranteed starting spot in all 36 Cup Series races.
Licensed teams had negotiated better financial terms with NASCAR, and while progress was reportedly made, it wasn’t enough for everyone. 23XI and another team – Front Row Motorsports, which is also fielding two cars – have not signed their charter.
A Tyler Reddick win would be embarrassing for NASCAR
Basically, NASCAR said fine, they will race next season with 32 approved teams instead of 36.
Without sanctioned teams, 23XI can still compete in races as “open” teams on a weekly basis, as several teams here and there have done in recent years.
But open teams would race for a smaller share of the weekly purse, wouldn’t get incentives throughout the season, and if more than 40 cars show up at, say, Daytona, they don’t have a place to start. guaranteed start, since 40 is the maximum on race day.
Jordan’s team and Front Row are now in court hoping to win an injunction allowing their charters to continue next year while the antitrust case moves forward — or, some would say, until ‘a settlement is found.
The chances seem slim, but it’s at least possible that Reddick wins the championship and then starts next season at Daytona without a starting spot in the Daytona 500.
Speaking of probabilities.
NASCAR Odds Don’t Favor Michael Jordan and Tyler Reddick
The championship odds at the start of the week favor the four drivers in this order:
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Blaney: +240
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Byron: +250
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Logano: +275
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Reddick: +300
These will likely be changed after Friday’s single free practice session in Phoenix, and will almost surely be changed after Saturday’s qualifying.
This article originally appeared in the Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR and Michael Jordan could become troublesome in Phoenix
